Wende Cragg&#8217;s 1978 Breezer Series I: Like Riding Jewelry –

Josh, Cari, and John were in Fairfax for a few days during the Camera Corner premiere, and before the Saturday screening, John shot Wende Cragg’s 1978 Breezer Series I, also known as #6, fresh off its world tour…

Breezer Series I bikes in Mineral King, 1978. Photo by Wende Cragg via her “I Learned to Fly…” story

Breezer Series I

This is the second Breezer Series I we’ve featured on The Radavist. The first was Otis Guy‘s. The Series I Breezers were clones of each other, with minor alterations to geometry and specification throughout the production timeline. Only ten were made in total. As the story goes, Charlie Kelly brought Joe Breeze $300 and said, “Joe. Build me a proper frame.”

Joe took that money and bought tubing for ten frames. He got to work, prototyping a frame to make sure his drawings would result in a ridable bike. He combined the things he learned under Albert Eisentraut with his many years of building, riding, and racing pre-war Schwinn klunkers around Marin County.

Joe and Breezer #1 in Rustoleum Red Oxide Primer. Photo by Wende Cragg via her “I Learned to Fly…” story

Joe’s Breezer #1, showed a handmade truss fork built from Columbus PS Sprint fork blades, but for the run of ten Series I frames, Joe abandoned making his own forks and instead contracted with Cook Bros Racing to make forks for the nine production Breezers. Fun note: Joe’s Breezer #1 is in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Joe Breeze modified CBR fork, left, original CBR fork, right. Note the enforcement rings and shorter fork legs on the left fork.

They were built with a shorter axle to crown than their early production length, to match these unique Breezer frames. These forks came to Joe from Santa Ana in raw metal form, so Joe could add cantilever studs, and reinforce the dropouts for klunkin’ by silver soldering in reinforcement rings at the dropouts, shaped the upper fork end, and then had them nickel plated with the frames.

Wende’s bike has endured decades of heavy riding. A past boyfriend of hers was tall and heavy and severely tested the seat tube by overly extending the seat post. This caused the upper seat tube by the collar to become damaged and Otis Guy repaired the frame with a sleeve to reinforce it.

Once repaired, it was polished and displayed at the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in Davis, CA ten years ago. Then, it got crated up and traveled the world. The first stop was at the Bloomfield Scince Museum in Jerusalem. From there, the bike went to museums in Naples, Hamburg, Warsaw, and Ottawa before landing back at the Marin Museum this year. Now, Wende’s original Repack klunker, her Series I, and her Series III are all back at home in Fairfax where they belong.

Tasshi penned a very historical piece on the Series I Breezers in the Otis Guy gallery, so if you want the complete history, roll on over there to check it out.

Like Riding Jewelry

While Wende and I were talking about her bike, Joe Breeze walked up. The two began to reminisce, leading them to a story about Joe entering one of his bike frames in the Marin County Fair.

“Somewhere around here, in my office, I have a green ribbon for “Honorable Mention” in the 1980 Marin County Craft Fair. This is an annual event held during the Marin County Fair at the Civic Center. I did find the backing for the ribbon and it says, “Division: 2 / Class: 3 Exhibit: 11 Entry: 18; Jewelry & Metal Art; Not For Sale; Breeze, Joe, Mill Valley, CA 94941″”

Wende commented, “You should have won!” and Joe replied, “The judge told me a bicycle frame is not art; it’s a craft.”

To which Wende so eloquently said, “It most certainly is art. Every custom bike is unique. There are no two alike. Riding my Breezer is like riding a piece of jewelry.”

Photos by Larry Cragg of Wende Cragg at Loon Lake via her “I Learned to Fly…” story

Wende Learned to Fly

What is so wonderful about this bike specifically is that it’s the bike that Wende was riding in all of Larry’s photos of her. Those Loon Lake photos are iconic, and the fact that she still has that bike over forty years later is nothing short of a miracle.

When Wende penned her “I Learned to Fly… On a Mountain Bike” piece for us, it was a seminal moment for all of us at The Radavist. Not only was it an intimate story about using the bicycle as a vehicle for exploration and a catalyst for community and how a bunch of doobie-rollin’ hippies in Marin started a movement in California, but it marked the official beginning of our three-year-long project called Camera Corner.

To Wende, Joe, Otis, Charlie (both Kelly and Sedlock), Cecile, the entire MMOB board of directors, and everyone else who made the Fairfax premiere a success, we are forever indebted to you. And to everyone who has a role in Camera Corner, it’s a real honor.

Like the woman who pedaled it all over California, Utah, and Colorado, this Breezer is as unique as a piece of handmade jewelry.